Unfortunately the pictures do not really expand on what was happening in the flask.

I've ended the experiment a few days ago since the seasons are changing here providing me with less access to the sun's light.

Back to the topic... here is a quote from "Man and Matter", a really great book by Ernst Lehrs.

The plant which performs this strange feat is the Tillandsia usneoides, indigenous to tropical America, and generally known as 'Spanish Moss'. Its peculiarity is that it grows and flourishes without taking from its support any material whatsoever for the building up of its substance. Its natural habitat is the dry bark of virgin forest trees. Since civilization invaded its home it has acquired the habit of growing even on telegraph wires, which has given it the popular name of 'telegraph tresses'. Chemical analysis of this plant shows the presence of an average of 17 per cent iron, 36 per cent silicic acid and 1Â·65 per cent phosphoric acid. This applies to samples taken from districts where the rainwater - the only source from which the plant could extract these substances in physical form - contains at most 1Â·65 per cent iron, 0Â·01 per cent silicic acid and no phosphoric acid at all.

The Tillandsia phenomenon is to a certain extent reminiscent of another well-known plant activity. This is the process of assimilation of carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air. If we leave aside the change in the chemical combination which the carbon undergoes, there remains the picture of the plant drawing this matter to itself from its environment and at the same time subjecting it to a spatial condensation. A similar but even more far-reaching process is exhibited by the Tillandsia as regards the three substances referred to above. From the conditions given, it follows that the plant cannot possibly get these substances elsewhere than out of the surrounding atmosphere, and that in drawing upon them it submits them to a high degree of condensation. A special role, however, is played by the phosphorus, which shows that the assimilative power of the plant is sufficient to transform phosphorus from a physically not traceable state into one of spatially bounded materiality. Following Goethe in his coining of the concept of 'spiritual anastomosis' for the pollinating process of plants, we can here speak of 'spiritual assimilation'.

The point that Lehrs makes in this part of the book is that plants respire, as humans do, and in doing so subject the carbon dioxide and other gases to a high degree of condensation... going from the gaseous phase to solid matter within its structure thanks to the circulation of the sap which provides a medium for the dissolution of these rarefied gases. In the leaves and the veins of leaves of plants, etc, we can see a juxtaposition of states of matter where solid liquid and gas come into contact with one another. In short, there is a chain through which Spiritus Mundi in its rarefied form can condense and, in this instance, potentially produce matter such as phosphorus.

So plants fix matter, they have a strong "sulphur" component, and they also have an airy, mercurial exhalation that they throw off (which remains cohesive as it is released thanks to the sulphuric principle inherent in it, thanks to which it owes its coagulation). Everything living has a smell or exhalation of some kind.

To fix matter, a strong mortar or cohesion is needed. This cannot happen without the Spiritus Mundi.

The ancients personified these two actions of inhalation/fixing and exhalation/destruction under the names of Eros and Eris, Love and Strife. And alchemists since ancient times recognised that in Natural Generation (as Sendivogius asserts) Nature has something to teach the chemists, about how matter (and all bodies) are formed. Thus Fulcanelli in Dwellings of the Philosophers compared "the blood boiling in the chalice" or the pregnant woman's womb to the Graal/Gardal/Cauldron where life is created, or "mixed". And the Corpus Hermetica tells the story of the Mixing Bowl or Crater, from which the initiation of Dionysus drew its name.

You'll forgive the matter of factness about these words, it is simply the bard's way of speech. Virgil in his Eclogues says "Amor vincit omnia, et nos cedamus Amore!", and I believe the wisdom in his words is amply demonstrated by the way mixts are created, and this idea can be applied to the manipulation of the Spiritus Mundi. Perhaps this is why von Welling mentioned that it was not always possible for all people to get the same results in the experiments he suggested that he did himself.

1 ~ The soul of Man as well as all rational Spirits (the Angels) consist (according to their primitive Essence) of the Spirit of the World or Anima Mundi and the power of reasoning. They are Unities and most simple, and consequently in their very essence immortal.

2 ~ In the Beginning God created the Universal Spirit or the Universal Agent of Nature, the Soul of the Universe.

This is the first emanation of Divine Light; it is a unity and immortal, capable of manifesting itself, when moved or agitated, into Light and Fire. It is multipliable and yet is and remains but one. It is Omnipresent and yet occupies no visible space or room, except when manifested or multiplied in its third principle, Fire. It has the power of becoming material and of returning again to universality.

This is the subject of the Stone or Medicine of the Philosophers. The more you take this in its simple, universal, unspecified or unmarried state, the easier, simpler and greater is your work, but the more this subject is already specified the more troublesome prolix and expensive is your process. 3 ~ Our Magnet to attract it (although every subject in Nature is Magnetical) is Man, and principally (Hadamah, the Dust, red earth of Man), which in the months of March, April and May, the Sun in Aries and Taurus is abundantly found in the blood of a healthy man; the Spirit of the Universe during this season residing therein most abundantly, universally and unspecified.

Thank you for the link to your pictures. Is this the experiment Welling mentions in Appendix C of his book?

Thanks,
I.A.C.

Here is the recipe:
I think that this operation can be shortened by using concave mirrors to concentrate Sunlight and the water cooled in a ice bath or even better use ice instead of water!

Very valuable information about the importance of Solar light in Alchemy can be found here:

There is also an old German book called "Das Geheimnuss der Verwesung und Verbrennung aller Dinge" (The secret operation of decomposition and combustion of all things) that points out the differences in action between the Solar, vulgar and mineral fire.
If somebody have this book i would love to read it.

My intention with this thread is to suggest a discussion related to the Principles and Archetypal Qualities which are necessary to understand and apply in practice, to manifest the Universal Spirit in tangible form.

I would like to avoid bringing up all sorts of 'matters', 'first matters' or particular 'paths' and 'recipes', since there are more than enough threads dealing with those topics.

Although this may be a more philosophical discussion, I've posted this thread in the practical section, because it has the potential to lead to practical applications of the insights we might gather here.

I know that many here are fond of quotes from 'source material'...

It would be great for this thread to become a home for quotes from authors dealing directly with the Works of Nature and how they are to be imitated or enhanced by Art, to facilitate this manifestation.
Same goes for images, allegorical or otherwise, which we may find to be connected to this very special Subject.
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Androgynus has clearly stated what can be posted here and i think you are out of subject.

I am trying to construct some practical modus operandi instead just wishing others good luck..

Thanks, would have responded sooner but I had to find my copy of von Welling (the English translation by McVeigh is worth every dollar). True Puffer has given the right images in his post relating to the experiment.

Those interested in the relation of the topic of the Spiritus Mundi to the Krater initiation of the Dionysian cult will no doubt find the chapter IV of the Corpus Hermeticum well worth looking over. Copenhaver's translation by Cambridge University press is one of the most exhaustive and complete that I know of. This chapter speaks as such:

"Since the craftsman made the whole cosmos by reasoned speech, not by hand, you should conceive of him as present, as always existing, as having made all things, as the one and only and as having crafted by his own will the things that are. For this is his body, neither tangible nor visible nor measurable nor dimensional nor like any other body; it is not fire nor water nor air nor spirit, yet all things come from it.

Does this not sound quite like the Spiritus Mundi?

Further on Hermes speaks of placing mind between souls as a prize for them to contest. He speaks of not all people possessing mind, although all possess reason. He speaks of filling a "great mixing bowl" or Krater with mind and sending it below, all who immersed themselves in mind became "perfect people". Examining the very extensive footnotes to the book, the word translated as mind is nous.

When we examine the use of this term in Greek thought, for instance on Wikipedia, we find Anaxagoras and his very interesting cosmogony:

According to Anaxagoras the cosmos is made of infinitely divisible matter, every bit of which can inherently become anything, except Mind (nous), which is also matter, but which can only found separated from this general mixture, or else mixed in to living things, or in other words in the Greek terminology of the time, things with a soul (psuchē).11 Anaxagoras wrote:

All other things partake in a portion of everything, while nous is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself. For if it were not by itself, but were mixed with anything else, it would partake in all things if it were mixed with any; for in everything there is a portion of everything, as has been said by me in what goes before, and the things mixed with it would hinder it, so that it would have power over nothing in the same way that it has now being alone by itself. For it is the thinnest of all things and the purest, and it has all knowledge about everything and the greatest strength; and nous has power over all things, both greater and smaller, that have soul [psuchē].12

We see here that mind (nous), which the Corpus Hermetica valued above all other things, was seen in Greek thought not just as a term for wit/understanding, but an actual substance... not unlike the definition of the quintessence in medieval thought. We even see quotes that indicate nous as "the greatest strength" etc... terminology which is also seen in the Emerald Tablet. There were philosophical disagreements between the Greeks of the time as to the nature of this "nous", whether material or incorporeal, etc, but the understanding of its subtlety and penetrating nature etc are unanimous.

How does one gain this "mind" or nous? How does it concentrate into one place? Based on my own understanding of the classical sources I would argue the answer to be "through resonance", or rather, via Eros. This fits in with the discussion of Nous and Eros found here:http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/ETP/III.html

If you examine these ideas carefully I believe you will find they are not theoretical but practical guidelines for a science of spirit and substance which found its expression in alchemy. Further I would assert that it has bearing on the experiment mentioned above as well as the focus on concentrating sunlight in the writings of the Rosicrucian alchemists.

Androgynus has clearly stated what can be posted here and i think you are out of subject.
I am trying to construct some practical modus operandi instead just wishing others good luck..

Hi everyone, and thanks for sharing your perspectives on this thread.

It can be a fine line between discussing principles and archetypal qualities (from which practical applications can be derived) and actually posting methods and 'recipes', which I would have personally preferred to avoid.

It is my personal opinion that posting about specific processes and 'recipes' may create a narrow and limited view on Nature and Art, and actually achieve the opposite of the desired effect, which is laying down a solid foundation of Hermetic Philosophy before rushing to the 'gold fever' of recipe hunting (which seems to be what many are interested in).

For example, it may be counter-beneficial to discuss particular 'Pulvis Solis' applications before comprehending the 'genderization' sequence of Spiritus Mundi while incarnating (from 'genderless', through female, hermaphrodite and finally married to itself and androgynous.

I do wish to guide this thread and hope for it to remain a pure as possible, but I have no desire to control it and attempt to dictate it's content by insisting upon what you can and can't say here.

It's the shared responsibility and discernment of the contributors that will make or brake this special thread.

Androgynus has clearly stated what can be posted here and i think you are out of subject.

I am trying to construct some practical modus operandi instead just wishing others good luck..

Yeah, he said it, and *I* say it's NOT Spiritus Mundi, even if it's a very interesting process. It was a call in order for you to change your mind about Spiritus Mundi. If you can't hear that, it's your problem.